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Science Careers in Song Lyrics

By Jim AustinOctober 24, 2007

We’ve just gotten our first Google-Analytics results for the blog, so
we know our posts are being read. So can we please have a little
interactivity? Other science-career bloggers, please pick this up.
Let’s see if we can get a nice thread going. (If you’re selling Viagra
or fancy-watch replicas I’m not talkin’ to you.)

Until recently
the only pop-song lyric I was aware of that’s related to careers in
science was one-hit-wonder Timbuk3’s 1980s hit "The Future’s
So Bright, I gotta Wear Shades:"

I’m doing all right, making good gradesThe future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades.

In
1986, when this song was on the charts, I was a junior and then a
senior in college, majoring in physics–including nuclear science. And
for what it’s worth, the song had no influence on my career path.

Recently
I came across another song with at least a token reference to careers
in science, and this one’s far superior to the one from Timbuk3. It’s
from Ani Difranco’s album "Revelling/Reckoning"–specifically, from
Disc 1, "Revelling," in song 2, "Garden of Simple:"

Science chases moneyAnd money chases its tailAnd the best minds of my generation can’t make bail.

The
album contains several references to science, and to careers, but this
is the most explicit science-career related lyric I’ve so far detected.
Here’s one other that’s likely to ring true to people on the job
market, from the third song, "Tamburitza Lingua:"

She’s getting plenty of little kisses but no one’s slipping her the key.

(Admittedly, that lyric could be interpreted differently. 😉

It’s a great album by the way, the smartest pop record I’ve heard in ages.

4 comments on “Science Careers in Song Lyrics”

I posted this over at the Facebook blog, but I shall endeavour to participate more directly here …
There is a Death Cab for Cutie song, aptly called ‘Scientist Studies’:
What ghosts exist behind these attic walls?
There’s got to be a simpler explanation,
’cause i scrimped and i saved just to find that they’ve been splicing my inventions.
Cold skin and bones and this latitude… we ain’t payin’ until the heat comes through.
So you slept in a stocking cap and wool scarf.
Promises of payment were upon your shoulders constantly,
But don’t forget to entertain ’cause this is your first defense.
A four-year offense to the devoted type.
I may have got an invitation but i wasn’t invited.
But i thought that this meant something more than broken hearts and new addictions.
We’ll leave our sins within the carpet twine.
Our bodies will dissolve the chemicals in due time.
Sounds like it could reflect the undergrad or grad route to becoming a career scientist, actually …!

You may have gotten this one by now, but Coldplay’s song “The Scientist” has this to say:
i was just guessing
at numbers and figures
pulling your puzzles apart
questions of science
science and progress
do not speak as loud as my heart

Science careers is not only focusing in song lyrics but also they are now more focus on the title of the song to attract listeners. You can see that most of our songs are related to science, I only figured it out last month.